For many years, since its discovery, the Chicxulub crater has intrigued the scientists mostly because this site is believed to have been caused by a massive asteroid that hit the Earth more than 65 million years ago. This impact supposedly led to the extinction of dinosaurs, scientists believe.
Chicxulub crater will be the subject of an upcoming scientific project, according to the scientists. They plan to drill into the crater and find out what really happened to the dinosaurs millions of years ago.
The experts want to collect samples from the core of the Chicxulub crater that will tell what the region was like 10 to 15 million years back.
The researchers say that by drilling into the crater and collect rock samples from deep inside of it, they will be able to determine whether or not the crater was indeed formed by the impact of an enormous asteroid when it crashed into the Earth. Also, the scientists hope to find if the asteroid was indeed responsible for the mass extinction that wiped the dinosaurs from the face of the Earth.
The Chicxulub crater is located on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and measures approximately 125 miles wide.
The crater is believed to have been created by a giant, 6 mile wide asteroid that hit our planet and killed the dinosaurs.
However, some scientists believe that the dinosaurs were already facing extinction by the time the asteroid crashed into Earth.
The scientists want to begin the drilling project sometime in the spring of 2015, and are hoping to get a better glimpse of how the Earth was like at the time of the impact.
According to the researchers, the drilling cannot reach that deep to provide information on the state of the Earth 65 million years ago, but it can reach as deep as to provide a glimpse on what it was like 10 to 15 million years back.
The scientists believe that when the asteroid crashed into the Earth it acted like a rock that it’s being dropped in water. It made it send a rebound up in the center of the impact, just like water would.
The researchers hope that by drilling inside the crater, they will be able to find some evidence of the impact and how it affected our planet.
The experts do not believe that the impact was big enough to cause the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs and want to find out what really happened.
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